AMD launches their Anti-Lag 2 tech in Counter Strike 2
AMD’s new Anti-Lag 2 technology comes to Counter Strike 2
Last year, AMD launched their Anti-Lag+ technology, a new driver-based lag mitigation technology that lowers the click-to-response latency of games. This technology expanded on AMD’s existing Anti-Lag technology made games feel more responsive. Now, AMD has revealed Anti-Lag 2, a new game-integrated technology that takes things one step further.
What went wrong with Anti-Lag+?
After launch, it was found that AMD’s Anti-Lag+ technology was triggering the anti-cheat technologies of some online multiplayer games. As a result of this, Anti-Lag+ users were being banned from their favourite games, forcing AMD to remove the feature from their drivers. Thankfully, developers reversed these unintended bans. Even so, it was clear that Anti-Lag+ needed to be reworked before it was re-introduced to AMD’s driver stack.
(Image from AMD)
Anti-Lag 2 is a game integrated technology
With AMD Radeon Anti-Lag 2, AMD has made their anti-lag tech a game-integrated technology. Consequently, this makes Anti-Lag 2 a direct competitor to Nvidia’s Reflex technology. AMD has partnered with Valve to integrate this technology into Counter Strike 2. In due time, we can expect more games to feature this tech in the future.
Anti-Lag works by controlling the pace of CPU work to ensure that it aligns with a user’s GPU. This restructuring of work allows for decreases click-to-response times and delivers more responsive gameplay. Since this new version of AMD Anti-Lag is game integrated, it can enable lower levels of latency than AMD’s older driver-based anti-lag solutions.
Radeon Anti-Lag 2 vs. Anti-Lag
Radeon Anti-Lag technology controls the pace of the CPU to make sure it aligns with the GPU, reducing the amount of CPU work that gets queued up. This decreases input-to-display response times, making games more responsive. As a driver-based solution, the initial version of Radeon Anti-Lag has long been available in AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition and can be enabled in any game, delivering lower latency for more responsive gameplay.
With the game-integrated Radeon Anti-Lag 2, the frame alignment is also applied in the game code itself and works in conjunction with the CPU pacing controlled by the driver to allow for better frame syncing. This leads to even lower click-to-response latency than what an in-driver only solution like Radeon Anti-Lag can deliver. Since Radeon Anti-Lag 2 is an in-game technology, it does require game developers to add it to their games, with Counter-Strike 2 being the first.
Expect AMD’s new Anti-Lag tech to come to more games
AMD plans to release their new Anti-Lag technology on GPU Open in the form of an SDK soon. This will allow more games to feature AMD’s new lag-mitigating technology. This will allow games to feed more responsive. Additionally, it will counter the latency penalty of Frame Generation technologies like FSR 3.
You can join the discussion on AMD’s Anti-Lag 2 technology on the OC3D Forums.
